EMILE BERNARD AND VINCENT VAN GOGH:Vincent van Gogh met Emile Bernard in 1886 at Fernand Cormon’s studio where they both studied under the well known portrait painter.Bernard was just 18 years old when he and Van Gogh.15 years his senior,became friends yet Bernard had already developed his own artistic style.
By 1887,Bernard had come to an artistic style which included simple flat forms clearly outlined by dark contours,a style which is typically referred to as “Cloisnnism”.Around the same time Van Gogh had developed a more synthetic style.The development of these styles no doubt comes from both artists’ appreciation of Japanese art which had become popular in Paris during that time.
Van Gogh was greatly influenced by Japanese art and there is no doubt that he did his best to influence Bernard’s enthusiasm of the subject as well.After he had created an exhibition of Japanese works at the Tambourin,Vincent wrote to his brother(Theo) saying:”I learned there myself,and I made Bernard learn there too””The exhibition of prints that I had at the Tambourin influenced me and Bernard a good deal”.
As much as Van Gogh influenced Bernard,Bernard influenced Van Gogh as well.Van Gogh’s work showed signs of simplification which was perhaps due to Bernard’s influence.Van Gogh’s relationship with Bernard was maintained by mail.Van Gogh wrote numerous letters to Bernard including one about his stay in Saintes-Maries.In this letter Vincent van Gogh lightheartedly mentioned his mental state:”It is possible that these great geniuses are only madmen,and that one must be mad oneself to have boundless faith in them and a boundless admiration for them,if this is true,I should prefer my insanity to the sanity of the others”.
On Tuesday evening July 29,1890 Vincent van Gogh went out to the countryside near Auvers sur Oise,placed his easel against a haystack and fired a revolver shot at himself.Under the violence of the impact(the bullet entered his body below the heart)he fell,but he got up again,and fell three times more,before he got back to the inn where he was staying(Auberge Ravoux,Place de la Mairie) without telling anyone about his injury.He finally died on Wednesday (July 30,1890),still smoking his pipe which he refused to let go of,explaining that his suicide had been deliberate and that he had done it in complete lucidity.Dr. Gachet told Vincent Van Gogh that he still hoped to save his life,Vincent replied,”Then I”ll have to do it over again”.But,it was no longer possible to save him!On Wednesday July 30,Emile Bernard arrived to Auvers at about 10 o’clock.Vincent’s brother,Theo van Gogh,was already there together with Dr. Gachet(French physician who took care of Van Gogh during the last months of his life). About this sad day,Emile Bernard wrote:”The coffin was already closed,I arrived too late to see the man again who had left me four years ago so full of expectations of all kinds….The innkeeper told me all the details of the accident,the offensive visit of the gendarmes who even went up to his bedside to reproach him for an act for which he alone was responsible…On the wall of the room where his body was laid out all his last canvases were hung making a sort of homage for him and the brilliance of the genius that radiated from them made his death even more painful for the artists who were there.The coffin was covered with a simple white cloth and surrounded with masses of flowers,the sunflowers that he loved so much,yellow dahlias,yellow flowers everywhere.It was his favorite color,the symbol of the light that he dreamed of as being in people’s hearts as well as in works of art.Near him also on the floor in front of his coffin were his easel,his folding stool and his brushes.Many people arrived,mainly artists,among them was Lucien Pissaro,also some local people who had known Vincent a little,seen him once or twice and who liked him because he was so goodhearted,so human. At three-o’clock his body was moved,friends of his carrying it to the hearse,a number of people in the company were in tears.Theo van Gogh who was devoted to his brother,who had always supported him in his struggle to support himself from his art was sobbing pitifully the whole time…The sun was terribly hot outside.We climbed the hill outside Auvers talking about him,about the daring impulse he had given to art,of the great projects he was always thinking about,and of the good he had done to all of us.We reached the cemetery,a small new cemetery strewn with new tombstones.It is on the little hill above the fields that were ripe for harvest under the wide blue sky that he would still have loved.Then he was lowered into the grave.Dr. Gachet(who is a great art lover and possesses one of the best collections of impressionist paintings)wanted to say a few words of homage about Vincent and his life,but he was crying so much that he could only stammer a very confused farewell.He briefly outlined Vincent’s achievements,stating how sublime his goal was and how great an admiration for him.He was,Gachet said ,an honest man and a great artist,he had only two aims,humanity and art. It was art that he prized above everything and which will make his name live.Then we returned.Theo van Gogh was broken with grief;everyone who attended was very moved,some going off to the open country while others went back to the station.Everyone knows how much I loved him.Vincent’s funeral was a crowning finale that was truly worthy of his great spirit and his great talent.”The respect and concern the friends shared was not completely lost.Following the suicide of Van Gogh,the death of his brother Theo and the return of his widow(Johanna van Gogh-Bonger) to the Nethelands,Bernard was entrusted with the role of administrator of Van Gogh’s affairs.He pleaded for an exhibition of his dead friend’s work,put his estate in order,together with the brother of the widow of Theo,and prepared the paintings to be shipped to the Netherlands.As early as in 1891,Bernard penned his first posthumous texts on Van Gogh and took the task of editing Van Gogh’s letters.In April 1893, the “Mercure de France” started publishing extracts from the letters which Van Gogh had written to Bernard.Emile Bernard also honored his friend with the first published biography.Van Gogh’s letters to Bernard reveal the tenor of their relationship.Van Gogh assumed the role of an older ,wiser brother,offering praise or criticism of Bernard’s paintings,drawings,and poems.The letters also chronicle Van Gogh’s own struggles as he reached his artistic maturity in isolation in Arles and St. Remy.The letters include no fewer than twelve sketches by Van Gogh meant to provide Bernard with an idea of his work in progress.He also began to publish letters from Van Gogh to his brother Theo,which Johanna,Theo’s widow made available to him..For Emile Bernard,Vincent was neither an ordinary man nor a painter: “Vincent brushes away,tosses and turns the paint,tortures it and caresses it depending on the effect and intensity he wants to obtain from it”. He was “Gifted with the Temperament of Genius”.
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